Customer Reviews

Clickfree Automatic Backup 250 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive 225-1003-100 (Cherry Red)

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

We have four computers in use right now. This device works exactly the way it supposed to. Simply plug it into the usb port on each pc and let it do its thing. Now the files for all four computers are backed up including years of digital pictures and hard to replace music files. Subsequent backups take only a few moments. Price on Amazon is a little high compared to QVC. Overall, I'm very pleased with the product. If you've been putting off backing up your hard drives because the task is intimidating, the Click Free will be a welcome friend.

I see a lot of people who think this is a great thing for backups, I hope none of them ever have a hard drive meltdown! I have over 14gb on my system and this backup(?) thinks it did a good job by backing up just over 3mb of stuff...I could easily stick that on CD's for a few pennies!
Unless they make a way to do a -real- total system backup they should be required to remove the word "backup" from this thing completely. I am most disgusted with myself for falling for this in the first place. And good luck downloading the "manual.pdf" from their website, hope you're not stuck with a dialup connection as we are here.

May 18, 2009 update;
Well I jumped the gun! The option isn't right up front where it belongs but one -can- do a total system backup with this Clikfree drive. The following is how to do it, (This gets 4 stars now);

1. Plug in the ClickFree device to start the program.
2. Once you get the Welcome Screen (where it starts to count down from 25)
click on the Options button on the lower left hand corner.
3. From the Options window click on Change Backup Settings.
4. Ignore Step 1 and make no changes, then click on Next.
5. Ignore step 2 and make no changes, then click on Next.
6. In step 3, Put a checkmark beside "my computer" or "computer" if you have Vista). Then click on Next.
7. Click on Close to the Change my Backup Settings window and then Click on Close to Options window.
8. Allow the backup to start.

This method will ensure the data you are looking to back up is saved.

Please note: That if your computer does fail you will still need your
Windows Recovery CD to install your operating system. Also, you will need
the CD's from your programs so that they could be re-installed in the event of a computer failure. However, following this method will backup every single file on your computer.

Before I bought this I read the reviews and some concerned me that I would not be able to backup some of my files. This is exactly what happened, so I got online thinking that I would talk to customer service, but to my suprise I did not have to, I simply read the online manual and in a very easy to understand explaination I found out what I needed to know and backed up everyone of my files, even the ones with the uncommon extensions, like .~enc and I did not even have to add this to "other" file extensions. So this little drive does do it all, and by the way I handle our server backkups at work using a far more sophisticated software and it doesn't really offer anything superior to this little backkup. I'll be buying more as needed. Good luck and as has been said thousands of times, when all else fails read the instructions. :-)

I have to admit: I was skeptical about this because it sounded to good to be true! But this Clickfree device has made my life so much easier and much more secure. I would always procrastinate on backing up, but now that I can just plug it in and watch it back up without doing anything more, I'm backing up at least a few times a week.

For the price of a few flash drives, I have the security of knowing that all my important data is backed up. And since I don't actually have to FIND that data on my computer, it's much faster. What's great is that Clickfree does not slow the computer, either when you're backing up or restoring, so you can easily have that in the background and still do other tasks. I have a 500 GB and a 250 GB computer, and the one with the most data took about 30 minutes to backup the first time and subsequently took only about 15 minutes to backup. The 250 GB computer that had less data took about 10 minutes to backup the first time.

Something else I was pleased to learn is that you can easily restore files, from this Clickfree device from multiple computers. When you have two or more computers, the device automatically calls them by their computer names. If you want to restore, you can choose all of the items that were backed up from a computer or just some of those items.

There isn't anything that I DON'T like about Clickfree...it's Clickfree for me!

I had debated purchasing this, but decided it was likely a good idea. I had NO IDEA what a good idea it was! First my desktop hard drive crashed, then the hard drive on my laptop and then the motherboard on my other laptop, all within a 2 month span of time! Luckily I had used the ClickFree and had all three computers backed up. I haven't repaired my desktop yet, but I restored the files to the laptop with the replaced hard drive and then the records to the new laptop that replaced the one with the dead mother board. EASY, FAST and a LIFE SAVER! This is a must buy for peace of mind and it WORKS!!! I store mine in my fireproof safe, just in case of the unthinkable. Doesn't take up much room and I can breathe a sigh of relief. I have recommended this to everyone I know as almost everyone I know does not back up their files regularly. Really this purchase is a NO BRAINER!

Bought the Clickfree 225GB backup device after reading reviews in the newspaper and online. It seems brilliantly simple. It worked just fine on my little laptop (a 5 y/o IBM ThinkPad). Sadly, that wasn't true when connected to my Dell XPS desktop - the machine that I use for work and which was the main reason for buying the Clickfree HDD. On starting to load, the Clickfree software stalls and I get a Windows message telling me that "ClickFree has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

After over a month of almost daily back and forth with Clickfree technical support (there ARE some nice people there), we seem to have exhausted the possibilities of getting their software fixed. Most recently, it seems like someone new got involved, didn't feel like reading the long (l-o-n-g) chain of e-mails and log files, and just started over with the "fix" that we tried more than 3 weeks ago (which didn't work). <sigh> I asked about replacing the unit, but they don't think it will help. Too bad. So sad. I was really hopeful that their software glitch could be identified and corrected.

Back to Seagate FreeAgent, cumbersome though it is!

This item is great! You just plug it in and it does all of the work for you. I was a little concerned at first because I wasn't sure if it would get all of the file extensions that I wanted to back up. I use Paint Shop Pro, and I wanted to make sure I could get all the tubes and masks backed up. On initial back up, they were not gotten, but this product had great step by step instructions on how to add files that were not on the default list, and I was able to add them in less than 5 mins! Now any new ones I add back up everytime I plug it in. I would recommend this to anyone!

It is a relief to get a piece of computer equipmemt and have it work just as advertised. I plugged it into two different computers and it did automatic backups with a minimum of input from me. An excellent product.

I like the ClickFree for what it does, and the ease of backing up is smooth and pain free. My only issue is that I have mostly programs on my C drive, but keep all my data on external hard drives, and take my various externals from computer to computer so that I always have all my files with me at work, home, elsewhere. The Click Free is only backing up what is on the C drive, and ignoring the other drives showing on the computer. I have 3 external drives hooked up at work, with data. Click Free ignored them and only grabbed what was on C.

My only recourse, if this is the case, is to either return the ClickFree, or move all my data files into the C drive, which I really don't want to do.

Potential purchasers should be aware that there is no way to password-protect the Clickfree. I had just assumed that the product would come with such basic functionality. But apparently, only the 500 GB version has this security capability.